An inventive yet messy postmodernist tale.
A father and daughter attempt to solve a paradoxical movie mystery in this metafictional novel.
On a rainy night in Brooklyn, failed screenwriter and discounted math teacher Portis Strawberry is about to choose suicide when he notices a blinking pink light down an improbably narrow alleyway. He discovers an ornate movie theater, one he’s never seen before, hosting the premiere of a film called Virtue, Deception—a title more than a little familiar to Portis: “There’s no mistaking it. It’s too specific. The movie being showcased is a concept that he developed nineteen years ago, but never got off the ground. The poster is his exact vision, and the film stars his dream cast….It’s mind-boggling and impossible, but right there to see.” Even stranger, the director of the film is also named Portis Strawberry. Portis immediately visits his adult daughter, a successful architect named Cherise, to tell her what he’s just seen, though the story is too fanciful for her to fully buy it. Portis needs to go to Hollywood and meet whomever it is who made his movie using his own name. Against her better judgment, Cherise agrees to accompany him, if only to keep him out of trouble. Unfortunately, trouble is precisely what they find: The director turns out to be Portis Strawberry, but he’s a different version of the protagonist. Soon, Cherise becomes a character in the film, and Portis may have to resort to murder in order to get control of the situation. CL’s prose is suffused with manic, fantastical energy, as here when Portis asks Cherise how she likes his script: “ ‘What did you think?!’ Mr. Portis excitedly asks, first thing in the morning. He has a big, goofy smile on his face. He’s been waiting up all night. Mr. Portis has a hop in his step and a glimmer in his eyes. Magic seeps into the day. Cherise woke up this morning to a whisper, but no one was around.” The author displays a great deal of imagination in this tale about the dark side of pursuing one’s dreams. Unfortunately, he does not anchor readers enough in a recognizable world for the narrative to have its full emotional effect. The story unfurls like a long, flat, exhausting cartoon—there’s flash and color but not enough substance beneath.
An inventive yet messy postmodernist tale.Pub Date: July 19, 2021
ISBN: 979-8539914202
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.
A sequel to The Grey Wolf (2024) that begins with the earlier novel’s last line: “We have a problem.” And what a problem it is.
Now that Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his allies in and out of the Sûreté du Québec have saved Canada’s water supply from poisoning on a grand scale, you might think they were entitled to some rest and relaxation in Three Pines. No such luck. Don Joseph Moretti, the Sixth Family head who ordered the hit-and-run on biologist Charles Langlois that nearly killed Gamache as well, is plotting still more criminal enterprises, and Gamache can’t be sure that Chief Inspector Evelyn Tardiff, who’s been cozying up to Moretti in order to get the goods on him, hasn’t gone over to the dark side herself. In fact, Gamache’s uncertainty about Evelyn sets the pattern for much of what follows, for another review of one of Langlois’ notebooks reveals a plot so monstrous that it’s impossible to be sure who’s not in on it. Is it really true, as paranoid online rumors have it, that “Canada is about to attack the U.S.”? Or is it really the other way around, as the discovery of War Plan Red would have it? As the threats loom larger and larger, they raise questions as to whether the Black Wolf, the evil power behind them, is Moretti, disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Marcus Lauzon, whom Gamache has arranged to have released from prison, or someone even more highly placed. A brief introductory note dating Penny’s delivery of the uncannily prophetic manuscript to September 2024 will do little to assuage the anxieties of concerned readers.
Don’t feel that your current news feed is disturbing enough? Penny has just what you need.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781250328175
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
